Subscribe to this blog

Follow by Email

Hood to Coast - Van 1

Let's get this straight: I love Hood to Coast. It sounds crazy to take 12 runners in two vans 200 miles from Mt Hood to the coast, and it is. It's also raucous, exhausting, hilarious, challenging, illuminating, messy LONG event. You really get to know the people in your van. And when two of those people are my dad and my brother, and the rest are friends and/or rad new people, it's well worth the sleep deprivation and muscle pain.

Our "go crazy" pic. Not crazy yet.

I ran leg 1 this year-- my ninth-- as I "collect all 12" to make my own full Hood to Coast. It was a great year for it, since #1's second leg had three miles added to it because of construction near the Hawthorne Bridge, which is the usual exchange between runners 12 and 1. I relished the extra distance in the otherwise short set of runs.

Okay, let's actually go get ready now

I was also pleasantly surprised by the first leg, which is known to cause some injury because of its steep downhill. Obviously I've been running some mountains recently, because it didn't seem that steep to me. The road was very even and gentle, and I ran 7:08s-- a personal best that I will never top unless I am running down an even steeper mountain on perfect terrain.

Lined up at the start at Timberline Lodge on Mt Hood

It was a trend, too, because everyone in our van kept beating their predicted times. This lead to a bit of frustration on the part of the captain (me) who was trying to plan and time everything.

Kat on her first leg, #2

Ultimately, we all had a great time and enjoyed each other's company. We also came up with some great ideas for next year. You know it's a success when everyone is already excited for next year!

My dad slapping fives on leg #4

One of the main improvements we hope for next year is to spend more time with both vans. By the time Van 2 got to the coast and we met up in the thick crowds, Van 1 was cranky and tired (okay, maybe mostly me). It's tough to hang out at the van exchanges, though, when you're trying to get rest beforehand and then you have to jet off after your runner.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Our family hiking trip this year was to the Dolomites, more specifically Alta Via 1. John and I have done several hut to hut hiking trips in the Alps and planned them all ourselves, we never had any problems. As I started to plan our trip to the Dolomites, it became clear to me that it might be easier if we used a local company to help us book our accommodations and transportation. That way when questions came up from family members there was someone we could ask. Also letting the ultrarunner of the group plan the daily hiking itinerary probably isn't the best idea.

I ended up contacting Dolomite Mountains, I sent them my itinerary, the places I had already booked and a few other specifications and Monica created an agenda pretty similar to the one I already had in mind. As much as I like to plan things myself, it was nice to have someone local and not feel responsible for 5 other people's vacation. Plus if they thought the hike was too hard they couldn't blame me.

We completed the Loowit trail, 34 miles circumnavigating the volcanic lands and forests surrounding the squat, smoldering Mt St. Helens. It was amazing, but I cannot rightly recommend this route to others.

Not because it's not beautiful, mostly fun, diverse in ecosystems, and full of fascinating wildlife. It is all of those things. But it is also full of washouts and utterly terrifying descents, ascents, and traverses on huge dunes of kitty-litter-esque scree.

Granted, I have a particular fear of scree washouts after our Mt Hood circ attempt. But some of these washouts were incredibly precarious. Each foot placement had to be strategized and the few rocks to hold on to often came away in the sandy scree, sending an avalanche of gravel and dust down the side of the slope, the sound of which reminds one what will happen if you should misstep.

We started at June Lake trailhead, from which you run about 2 miles up to join Loowit trail. From there we had heard there would be lots of walk…

11
years ago my first multi-day backpacking trip was the 50+ mile loop around
the Three Sisters in Central Oregon. Since then
I have done multi-day hikes all over the world and in the Pacific Northwest,
but the Three Sisters trip still remains one of my favorites and most
beautiful. I have been back to the Three Sisters Wilderness several times in
the last 11 years for overnight trips and even to climb South Sister, but never to do the full loop. Once
Susan and I started talking about doing the loop around Mt. Hood, I knew if we
completed that we could do the Three Sisters.

Mt. Hood is shorter distance wise (~40 miles), but it has almost double the
elevation (10,000 feet), and it has the Eliot Creek washout. We almost completed the
full Mt Hood loop in 2013 and we would of
completed it if it wasn't for getting lost and running out of day light. Even
though we didn't complete the loop we still ran about the same distance and were confident
that we could do the Three Sisters lo…

Our first day off to run in 2018 (Wednesday, 4 April), and I was thrilled. While on a family hike a month or two ago, I noticed a trail sign with some good distances on it. I looked them up when I got home, and discovered the Tarbell Trail-- a 24.75 mile loop in southwest Washington in the Silver Star Mountain and Grouse Mountain area. After lots of research, I was excited to have planned our first adventure since it's usually Ann who does the work.

Well now we know why that's the case. After a bunch of rescheduling, we finally settled on Wednesday, 4 April for our run. On Tuesday, Ann called the ranger station and was told that part of the trail was closed for logging and that there was also snow. Last-minute back-up plan: the Wilson River trail. It's a 22 mile point-to-point trail that's safe from snow, we've only run it twice, and it's been three years since we did the whole thing.

We were suppose to run 18 miles this Saturday, but Susan's son got sick and she couldn't run until Sunday. Since I had already planned on running on Saturday, I decided to do a short run and run 18 with Susan on Sunday. Somehow my 4-5 mile run turned into 8 miles and I legs still felt like they were recovering from the 23 miles the previous Sunday. I knew Sunday was going to suck.

Neither of us ended up sleeping well Saturday night and at the very last minute I rerouted the run to cut off 3 miles. Shaving off 3 miles off a loop is harder to do than you would expect, especially when you haven't had a lot of sleep. But as most things do, it worked out just fine and at the end of the run I don't think either of us regretted cutting the run short.